Roots of the recent PEF leadership contest go back to last year

With the recent election for leadership of the Public Employees Federation ovwer, changes are already taking place at the state workers union.

Here’s an email exchange between then-steward and now incoming President Susan Kent and incumbent Ken Brynien who was defeated in last month’s election. The exchange shows how the seeds of Kent’s challenge and the vote which appeared to center on the union’s recent contract, started a year ago.

Please note, these e-mails are a year ago, from 2011 and the layoff threat referenced in them was dealt with when the new contract was approved last Fall:

Sent: Thu, Jul 14, 2011 02:15:08 GMT+00:00

Subject: RE: Layoffs should not be used as a Bargining tool

Ken,

Your lack of communication is deafening and disturbing. What are you doing? Strategy is needed. CSEA is bringing a terrible contract to their
members and ours are slated for layoff. What’s your plan?
Susan

We are communicating with the members everyday. Obviously, you did not understand my last reply, which should be taken to mean all strategy,
not just legal ones. We are still at the negotiations table. When that strategy stops working, we will employ others.

Subject: PEF needs to step it up now not after the CSEA contract is sent to their members for ratification and our members are laid off

Ken,

I waited a couple of days to respond to you to see if anything different was going to be done at PEF, but I hear and see nothing new. Contract update messages are not a strategy. How can your only position be that if negotiations don’t work than you will use other strategies when reality is that CSEA is sending that proposal to their members next week and our members are slated for layoff next week.

Let me be clear so you understand what my email to you meant – – we need a strategy and implementation of that strategy prior to CSEA members receiving that contract proposal for ratification and our members losing their jobs next week. Did PEF do an analysis of the ramifications of the CSEA
contract that is going to CSEA members next week for ratification? If not, why not? You put out a statement re: the Council 82 contract that was being sent to their members and stated that even if ratified it wouldn’t set a pattern because of the number of members that Union represents. You know full well that if CSEA members ratify the proposed contract, the next statement we will hear is that we have few options because the pattern has been set.
Is this when you are going to employ other strategies?

The contract team is meeting. What else is PEF Administration doing? Should individual Council Leaders be conducting their own campaigns and using their Division funds with no concerted strategy from our President? We are trying to get free press coverage about our members being laid off – it’s not working
very well. Letters to the editors are a strategy, but can’t be used alone. This is a major war and requires many tactics to be employed. This is a major issue that our members will have to bear the consequences of for the next five years and will have future negative reprecussions for unionized workers.

What happened to your position that this is New York and what they are trying to do in other states won’t be tolerated here? I continue to hear from PEF elected leaders that we are working very closely with CSEA. How does that fit with reality?

PEF should be putting out information about why the CSEA contract is not acceptable to PEF that can be shared with our members at the work sites through a leafleting campaign coordinated through the Council Leaders (who should have PEF email address offered to them so we can communicate together, but PEF
never followed up on that EBoard member requested item), L/M Chairs, Executive Board Members, Stewards, PEF Officers, Regional Coordinators, PEF retirees,
etc. PEF should be doing this in conjunction with a media campaign that highlights the issue of the layoffs that will be implemented next week. This is not interfering in the business of another Union – – it is conducting an education campaign for our members and the public about why this contract proposal is unacceptable to PEF and the impact that layoffs will have on the public we serve.